Learning to Breathe, a bones fanfic

A/N: Hey guys! I heard this great song the other day and I thought it was just begging to become a oneshot – it's a really positive song and I really love it! It's called "Learning to Breathe" and it's by Nerina Pallot.

I just wrote this one for fun, and it's not meant to be taken seriously or anything. It's not great, but I had a good time writing it so hopefully you will have a good time reading it! Consider this a good old 'summer read'!

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, and I don't own the lyrics to this song!

Light Spoiler Warning: For the last scene of the Season 2 Finale! (This story takes place right after it).

LEARNING TO BREATHE

Brennan took another stunned look at Booth and questioned him with her eyes. She felt the questions mirrored back in his own gaze, and he gave her a nervous smile. Brennan looked out at the crowd in the church who were whispering amongst themselves. Some of them started to gather their families and get out of the creaky wooden pews, while others sat there in a state of shock.

"What's going on?" Zach whispered like a ventriloquist; as if hiding his lip movements secretively.

"I think…" Brennan began, looking at Booth for some kind of insight. "I think we're done here." She finished.

Booth uncertainly shifted his weight from one foot to another, and then rubbed his hands together conspiratorially. "Well, you heard the happy couple," he said loudly to the confused crowd, "We'll see you all at the reception!"

Oh, this road is long, this road is wide,
It takes more than luck to last the ride,
It takes strength and it takes courage to survive,
And did someone ever say to you,
"There's nothing bound in thought you cannot do?"
Well, I've seen some things but not all of them came true.

It did not take long for the guests of the wedding to dissipate out of the church. From her stance still up near the altar, Temperance could still smell the lingering whisps of an elderly lady's stale perfume, and the stuffiness from the crowd still permeated the air. The rest of the wedding party, including Booth, had gone outside to give the guests directions and settle any rumors that the crowd had come up with all on their own.

Standing up at the altar, Temperance turned to look up at the stained glass and the sunlight that sparkled out of it. The sun had shifted for it was now the afternoon and she could barely make out the reflections of purple and red that caressed her skin from the majesty of the window. She wrapped her arms around herself and inwardly sighed.

Hodgins and Angela were truly a couple to be envious of. She had her own suspicions of why the wedding did not proceed, but knew that it had nothing to do with a lack of love between the two of them. How could they plan a wedding of this splendor, just to call it off with a smile and run off happily together? How could they be so satisfied with each other that nothing else mattered?

Though her level of education and intellect may have surpassed Angela's, Temperance was always in a state of admiration at her friend's ability to be free and be so in love with life. Angela, the true meaning of a free spirit, was someone who Temperance truly aspired to be more like. But how?

She paced around the altar, standing where Booth had stood only half an hour ago. How does Booth see me? She thought to herself. Am I some uptight woman? Am I cold? Temperance had never been one to give much thought to what other people thought of her, though this did not hinder her curiosity.

She stared down at stiletto shoes and twirled her ankle around idly. She then glanced down at her Grandmother's ring and watched as the light from the window behind her caught the light and the ring glimmered sweetly. Looking back up at the aisle in front of her, things began to become clearer. I can be free, she told herself. I can be free like that too.

She kicked off her shoes and scooped them up off the floor. She smiled to herself and walked quickly barefoot down the aisle picking up the pace as she reached the large oak door. She turned and glanced back at the stained glass window before pushing all of her weight against the big door; as if breaking through to a new phase of her life.

So I don't want to be the last, I don't want to be the first,
Don't want to be alone with my thoughts tomorrow,
And I don't want to be afraid, don't want to look away,
I'm learning to breathe,
No I don't want to be the last, I don't want to be the first,
I just need a hope and a light to follow,
Like sailors look to stars to find their way home,
I'm learning to breathe on my own.

Brennan escaped through the waiting area, and then out the front of the church. As she quickly made her way down the steps in her bare feet, she turned around when she heard a familiar voice.

"Bones?" Booth called.

She turned around and raised a hand to block the sun out of her eyes. She glanced up at him from the bottom of the steps and stared up at him with sun-squinted eyes.

"Where are you going?" he laughed, taking in her bare feet and foolish smile. He had removed his tux jacket and had obviously ruffled up his hair.

Temperance looked down the road beside her and then back up at Booth. "I don't really know anymore." She said cryptically.

Booth looked at her curiously and took a couple of steps down closer to her. "Hey, are you okay about the whole Angela/Hodgins thing? I mean, you don't know if…"

Brennan cut him off. "Booth, I'm really happy for them. I don't know why they ran off, but they had the courage to do it." She took another step backward.

"Maybe I'll see you at the reception?" She added, before turning around to walk down the road. "Save me a dance?" she added boldly.

Booth chuckled slightly, "Absolutely" he said, chiding himself for not coming up with something wittier to say. She gave him an uncharacteristically dazzling smiled and walked down the empty road with her shoes still tucked up under her arm.

"Bones!" He called after her. "Why the hell are you walking in your bare feet on the road?"

She didn't answer him, but instead waved and kept on walking. From his position up on the church steps, Booth watched his partner walk out of sight down the road. What is she thinking? He though to himself; finding himself, once again, caught up in the mystery that was Temperance Brennan.

And I know a man who lost his wife,
This is the way he chooses to describe his life,
He says, "If I think too much, I find there's just a hole,"
But before she went, she left a son,
He says, "Dad, you're not the only one,
Maybe love is just a requiem for the soul..."

The gravel pebbles of the road gently scraped against the soft skin of Temperance's feet, though she gave no notice to it. She looked up at the sky and thought of Booth's expression as she walked away from the church. She was half-expecting to hear him creep up behind her in his car, and she chuckled at the mental image this created. Booth was always the one to protect her – even if just from sharp gravel pebbles.

As she walked, she could feel the sun beat down on her fair skin and she lifted her face to feel its warm rays. With her free hand, she began removing the copious amounts of hair pins from her shiny auburn locks. She carelessly dropped the tiny pins behind her, and reveled in the feeling of her loose hair falling around her shoulders. Freed from its pinned entrapment, her hair curled haphazardly and framed her face playfully. Feeling guilty for only a few moments at leaving Booth to fend off the wedding guests on his own, it truly felt so wonderful to finally channel some of Angela's spontaneity.

Oh, do you still feel small?
Just a speck of life on an ocean wave,
Does it pull us all?
Does it pull us all?

She walked along the dirt road until she finally reached a clearing in a more wooded area. She slowed her pace and dropped her shoes in the grass beside a large bush. The area had been cleared for a children's play area, although it looked like it had not been touched in ages. There was a simple wooden swing set and a small rusted yellow slide. She smiled to herself as she approached the swing set and took a seat.

She felt the rough, cold sand brush against her bare feet as she pushed herself forward on the swing set. She could hear the swings creak slightly at her weight, but as the rhythm of her oscillations progressed, the creaking became a familiar and comforting melody. She pumped her feet forward and backward, forward and backward, gaining height on the swing at ever pump of her legs.

Her bridesmaid dress blew freely around her legs, and the delicate material tickled her skin. Still swinging, she arched her back slightly backwards and let her head hang upside down. Not having done so since she was a little girl, she adored the mixture of freedom and spatial confusion that this stance allowed. That is, until she saw a dark figure come into her upside-down peripheral vision.

She gasped slightly and bolted straight back up in the swing. Still swinging, she turned her head and her eyes widened.

"Bones." Booth greeted with a goofy smile and a slight tilt to the head.

"How long have you –"

"Oh not long, but you can't blame me for wondering where you went…" he began as he removed his shoes and placed them next to hers on the dewy grass.

"I should – I mean we should probably get back to the reception." Brennan protested as she tried to slow her swing. She tried to put a foot down on the ground but found it too painful to do so with her bare feet.

"Oh come on Bones, live a little." Booth said as he sat down in the swing beside her.

Brennan smiled over her shoulder at Booth, her hair a cluster of loose auburn curls around her face. She began to pump her legs again, bringing her swing higher and higher. Booth did the same, and they soon found themselves in an unspoken competition to see who could achieve the highest oscillation.

Clearly Brennan was winning, and in an act of playfulness Booth reached for one of the chains of Brennan's swing and tugged on it gently, throwing her off course.

"Booth!" she yelped as she tried to swat his hand away, but he maintained his grip. Both of their swings began to twist and twirl in many directions; deviating from the straight and narrow path. In many ways, this is symbolically what Booth meant to Brennan. He was the one to take her off the narrow path; the one to hold her even through the turbulent and the unpredictable.

Caught up in their erratic twirls, both Brennan and Booth were oblivious to the escalating creaking coming from the old swing set. Booth's added weight, combined with their unpredictable swinging patterns caused the wooden plank to bend slightly. As a splintering sound rang out from above them, Brennan shot her head up to see that the wooden plank was cracking. Booth followed her gaze upward, but they were too late. The swing set began to deteriorate above them and Booth instantly let go of Brennan's chain and grabbed her by the arm.

The two partners lunged away from the wood and toward the grass seconds before the entire play structure was reduced to rubble similar to that of firewood. Booth had fallen slightly onto Brennan and he quickly removed himself, as he looked all over her body for any sign of injury. Brennan lay on her back and propped her head up to look at the broken swing set, and then the pale look on Booth's face. Booth opened his mouth to say something, but quickly broke out into a smile when he heard the uncharacteristic sound of Brennan's laughing.

Still laughing, they both sat up and Brennan straightened the hem of her dress out along her knees. "You okay?" Booth asked.

"Never better" Brennan replied. Without thinking, Booth reached a hand out towards Brennan's face and brushed away some curls which were covering her lovely face. At his touch, the two stopped laughing but Brennan retained shadows of a smile which danced around in her cold blue eyes.

Lowering his hand from her hair, he gently rested his fingers against her cheekbone as if awaiting an invitation from her to go further.

This was the chance that Brennan had been waiting for, and she knew it. Her eyes batted back and forth from his, as if unsure where to place her stare. Brennan wanted to let go of these lines that she had built up for so long; the very ones that she had vowed never to break. Just as the swing set which had kept her on a straight path had been broken by Booth, she could also feel him breaking through her hesitancy.

Seeing a glimmer in her eyes, Booth took this as his sign. He slowly brushed his lips against her forehead and, as he did so, felt her gently exhale against the hollow of his neck. He brought his stare to meet hers before directing it to her soft, warm lips. Finding no sense of caution in her eyes, he lowered his lips onto hers in a sweet embrace that both had only dreamed about.

Brennan raised her hands to his face and then wrapped them slowly around his neck as the kiss quickly escalated in intensity. Stopping for air, Booth lowered his lips and brushed kisses down her neck. He could feel the vibrations of her vocal chords on his lips as she whispered his name quietly. Booth put his hands protectively behind her back as he lowered her slowly to the ground, continuing his passionate ministrations on her lips.

"We should go back…" Brennan whispered after a few more minutes.

"I never want to go back" Booth said playfully has he kissed the side of her face and around her ear, his breath sending tingles down her spine.

"I think you owe me a dance, Agent Booth." She smirked.

Brennan instantly missed the heat of his body as Booth got up from the ground. He reached an arm out toward her on the ground to help her up. "May I have this dance, Dr. Brennan?" he said with a smile.

She smiled and accepted his hand. He brought her body close to his and they gently swayed back and forth to the silence of the secluded area. They danced near the wooden rubble where the swing set had sat for years, the swing set that symbolized the same confining structure that had held Temperance captive for so long.

For it is only when you swing to the top that you will ever understand what you are missing down below.

THE END

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